The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb — Volume 2 eBook

could meet on a conciliating level, and lay down their
less important differences. Once only I saw the
old gentleman really ruffled, and I remembered with
anguish the thought that came over me: “Perhaps
he will never come here again.” He had
been pressed to take another plate of the viand, which
I have already mentioned as the indispensable concomitant
of his visits. He had refused, with a resistance
amounting to rigour—­when my aunt, an old
Lincolnian, but who had something of this, in common
with my cousin Bridget, that she would sometimes press
civility out of season—­uttered the following
memorable application—­“Do take another
slice, Mr. Billet, for you do not get pudding every
day.” The old gentleman said nothing at
the time—­but he took occasion in the course
of the evening, when some argument had intervened between
them, to utter with an emphasis which chilled the
company, and which chills me now as I write it—­“Woman,
you are superannuated.” John Billet did
not survive long, after the digesting of this affront;
but he survived long enough to assure me that peace
was actually restored! and, if I remember aright,
another pudding was discreetly substituted in the
place of that which had occasioned the offence.
He died at the Mint (Anno 1781) where he had long
held, what he accounted, a comfortable independence;
and with five pounds, fourteen shillings, and a penny,
which were found in his escrutoire after his decease,
left the world, blessing God that he had enough to
bury him, and that he had never been obliged to any
man for a sixpence. This was—­a Poor
Relation.

STAGE ILLUSION

A play is said to be well or ill acted in proportion
to the scenical illusion produced. Whether such
illusion can in any case be perfect, is not the question.
The nearest approach to it, we are told, is, when
the actor appears wholly unconscious of the presence
of spectators. In tragedy—­in all which
is to affect the feelings—­this undivided
attention to his stage business, seems indispensable.
Yet it is, in fact, dispensed with every day by our
cleverest tragedians; and while these references to
an audience, in the shape of rant or sentiment, are
not too frequent or palpable, a sufficient quantity
of illusion for the purposes of dramatic interest
may be said to be produced in spite of them.
But, tragedy apart, it may be inquired whether, in
certain characters in comedy, especially those which
are a little extravagant, or which involve some notion
repugnant to the moral sense, it is not a proof of
the highest skill in the comedian when, without absolutely
appealing to an audience, he keeps up a tacit understanding
with them; and makes them, unconsciously to themselves,
a party in the scene. The utmost nicety is required
in the mode of doing this; but we speak only of the
great artists in the profession.